Looking Back: Eastern Himalayan Mission

From May 1923

Eastern Himalayan Mission

- an extract

The annual report of our Eastern Himalayan Mission provides an opportunity for glancing at the operations of the Mission as a whole; and, in spite of its superficial divisions, the Mission is essentially a whole. It is a wedge, as Dr. Graham described it, “driven into the heart of three great closed lands”: Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. Since these words were written, rather more than twenty-five years ago, much has changed in the Eastern Himalayas. The vision which Dr Graham then pictured has not indeed been fully realised. The doors into the closed lands are not yet fully open, but neither are they completely shut. Friendly relations have been established with all three countries. As noted in these pages some months ago, Bhutan has awakened to the value of education and has now two schools taught by Christian teachers; Tibet has given permission to a Christian Missionary to visit Christian Tibetans and strengthen and encourage them in their faith; and some at least of the Nepalese are being reached at Raxaul. Above all, in the wide district covered by the ‘wedge’ a strong Christian community has become firmly established.

Growth of the Native Church

There is no difficulty in reading between the lines of this year’s report the evidence, not only of faithful and laborious service on the part of our missionaries, both European and Indian, but of the steady growth of the Christian faith in the land. The total of baptized Christians in connection with the various branches of the Mission numbers 8406. To those who are accustomed to regard numbers as the chief test of success, these figures may not appear remarkable, and numbers are not to be ignored. At the same time, they are far from being the main test of fruitfulness, either at home or in the Mission-field. Every minister at home knows that the best and most enduring fruit of his efforts can never be tabulated. No record can be made of them except that which is written in the hearts of men and women.

Its Leavening Influence

We ought not to expect it to be otherwise with our Missions. The natural desire to see a rapid increase in the number of baptisms must not blind us to the quiet unrecorded influence that can be steadily exerted by a comparatively small band of earnest men and women upon a whole community. It has always been so. Time after time it is recorded that the Israel of God was saved by a remnant. The Master Himself has likened His kingdom to the leaven that leaveneth the whole lump. That process, we may be sure, is going on to-day among the people of the Eastern Himalayas.

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